The Game
• Johns Hopkins opens the 2022 season by welcoming Jacksonville to Homewood Field for the first-ever meeting between the two programs.  Faceoff is set for 12 pm on Saturday, February 5.

The Facts
•  This is the 135th season of Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse.  JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
•  Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 997-355-15.
'•  JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.

Oh Captain, My Captain
•  Senior attackman Joey Epstein and graduate student defenseman Jack Lyne were selected into a vote of their teammates to serve as co-captains for the 2022 season.
• Epstein is in his third season as a captain and joins Greg Raymond '05 as the only players in program history to serve as a captain three times (dating back to 1950).
• Lyne is in his second season as a captain and is the 14th two-time captain in school history (dating back to 1950). 

For Openers
•  The Blue Jays are 17-4 in their last 21 season openers.
•  Johns Hopkins has won 12 of its last 14 season openers.
•  Johns Hopkins has scored at least 10 goals in its season opener in 12 of the last 14 years and at least 12 goals in seven of the last 10.

In February
•  This week's game against Jacksonville will be the 47th all-time for Johns Hopkins in the month of February.
•  JHU is 30-16 (.652) all-time in games played in the month of February.
•  Johns Hopkins played its first game in the month of February in 1998, didn't play again in February until 2004 and has now played at least one game in the opening month of the season every year since 2006.

On This Date
•  This week's game against Jacksonville will be the first Johns Hopkins has ever played on February 5.
•  The game against the Dolphins will be the earliest in school history.  Previously, the earliest date the Blue Jays have ever played was on February 7 (2015, 2017).

When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins finished the 2021 season at 4-9 overall, including 2-8 in the regular season.  All 10 regular season games came against Big Ten opponents as the league played only conference games as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Blue Jays were seeded sixth in the 2021 Big Ten Tournament, but made a stunning run to the title game as they topped third-seeded Penn State (15-7) and second-seeded and sixth-ranked Rutgers (12-10) to reach the title game for the third consecutive season.
• In the title game, the Blue Jays fell to top-seeded and top-ranked Maryland, 12-10.

Poll Position
•  Johns Hopkins is ranked 16th in the USILA Preseason Coaches Poll and 19th in the Inside Lacrosse Preseason Media Poll.
• Jacksonville is not ranked in either the USILA or Inside Lacrosse Media Poll

Blue Jays Third B1G Preseason Poll
•  Johns Hopkins was picked to finish third in the 2022 Big Ten Preseason Poll of the league's head coaches.
•  Since the formation of the Big Ten in 2015, Johns Hopkins has won the Big Ten Tournament title twice (2015, 2018) and advanced to the title game two other times (2019, 2021).
• Johns Hopkins' two Big Ten titles rank second in league history and the four appearances in the league championship game are tied for the most in league history.

Series History
• This week's game will be the first ever game between Johns Hopkins and Jacksonville in men's lacrosse.
• The Blue Jays and Dolphins did not share any common opponents in 2021 and do not share any common opponents during the 2022 regular season.  The Dolphins will play at Denver on February 26; the Blue Jays tuned up for the 2022 season with a scrimmage against the Pioneers in Denver on January 29.

Roster Breakdown
•  The Blue Jays' 52-man roster includes nine graduate students, nine seniors, nine juniors, 14 sophomores and 11 freshmen.
• Johns Hopkins' 2022 roster includes players from 13 different states and five players from Canada.
• By state, the Blue Jays hail from New York (13), Maryland (11), Pennsylvania (4), Massachusetts (4), New Jersey (3), Virginia (3), Florida (2), Connecticut (2), Ohio (1), Georgia (1), Delaware (1), Utah (1), Texas (1).

Closing in on 1,000
•  Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 997-355-15 to rank as the all-time winningest program in college lacrosse history.
• With three wins, Johns Hopkins will become the first men's college lacrosse program to reach 1,000 all-time wins.
•  JHU is one of just seven schools with 700+ victories, one of just five with 800+ wins and one of two that has won 900 or more games.
•  The seven schools with 700+ wins in Division I men's lacrosse history are listed below.

More Than 75% of Offense Returns
• Paced by attackman Connor DeSimone, who led the team with 25 goals and 20 assists for 45 points last season, the Blue Jays return eight of their top 10 scorers from 2021; of the seven players who scored 10 or more points a year ago, six are back in 2022.
• In all, JHU returns players who accounted for 75.8% of its goals (110-of-125) and 76.3% of its assists (61-of-80) last season.
• Among JHU's top eight returning scorers from last season, only two (Connor DeSimone, Jack Keogh) are in their last year of eligibility and four of the eight (Jacob Angelus, Brendan Grimes, Casey McDermott, Johnathan Peshko) have three years of eligibility remaining.

Extra-Extra
• Johns Hopkins converted on 15-of-35 (.429) extra-man chances in 2021 to finish tied for 12th nationally in extra-man offense.
• Players who scored 13 of JHU's 15 EMO goals a year ago return in 2022 with Joey Epstein (5), Garrett Degnon (3), Connor DeSimone (2), Johnathan Peshko (2) and Brendan Grimes (1) all back this season.
• Epstein is JHU's career active leader in EMO goals with 12, while Degnon has six to his credit.
•  The Blue Jays 42.9% conversion percentage last season marked the eighth time since 2012 that Hopkins has finished the season at better than 40% on extra-man.

Offensive Notes of Interest
• The Blue Jays' most productive quarters in 2021 were the second and third, as JHU scored 42 goals in each of those quarters and held an 84-68 scoring advantage over the course of the season in the middle two periods.
• After being held below 10 goals three times in their first six games, the Blue Jays bumped up their production in the second half of the season.  Over the final seven games of the 2021 season, Johns Hopkins scored at least 10 goals in all seven and 12 or more in four of the seven.

Defensive Notes of Interest
•  JHU allowed an average of 12.15 goals per game in 2021 to rank 41st nationally in scoring defense.
• While 41st was not where defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer and his group wanted to finish, the unit helped spark the Blue Jays' run in the Big Ten Tournament.
• Entering the Big Ten Tournament allowing an average of 12.9 goals per game and ranked 52nd in the nation in scoring defense, the Blue Jays held their three tournament opponents to a total of just 29 goals (9.7 goals/game) to jump 11 spots nationally in scoring defense.

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